


you hit me like a friday night

by HearJessRoar



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Boys Kissing, Caleb Covington Being a Bastard, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Is Alive, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mild Language, Misunderstandings, caleb wakes up and says today i will cause problems on purpose, gratuitous dc references, oh they're both so flustered, self indulgent as hell, two boys bein real nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28833831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HearJessRoar/pseuds/HearJessRoar
Summary: Bumping into someone at the comic store once is a coincidence.Twice is thrilling.Three times is starting to sound like a rom-com.Alex and Willie reach for the same comic. It all goes downhill from there.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina, Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson (mentioned)
Comments: 51
Kudos: 341





	you hit me like a friday night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thesunwillshineclear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesunwillshineclear/gifts), [alysurr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alysurr/gifts), [Criminally_Capricious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Criminally_Capricious/gifts), [caliibee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caliibee/gifts), [TheNameIsBritney](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNameIsBritney/gifts).



Alex sneezes down the collar of his hoodie.

The air is always so dusty when he digs through the back issue bins, and it aggravates his allergies. But he’s on a mission today, and no amount of sawdust thrown into the air from his opening and closing the homemade drawers is going to stop him.

Today he’s going to find it.

He’s already got a stack of Justice League International issues in slick plastic protective sleeves, ranging from ‘87 to ‘91, and if anybody would look at the numbers, they’d probably guess that he’s just filling in gaps in his collection.

He’s not.

And he knows that what he’s looking for is here _somewhere_ because he saw it yesterday in the “B” section.

He would have bought it yesterday, but he hadn’t been paid yet, and for cheap paper and ink, comics tend to get really expensive.

Frustrated, he shuts the drawer and leans on the bin, the wooden ridge biting into his elbows. Looking in the drawers was a long shot anyway; he knows how the alphabet works, and it wouldn’t have been in the drawer labelled “BR-BU”, no matter how many times he looks.

The store is quiet today, just him and the cashier, he thinks. He hasn’t seen anyone else, anyway. The big windows at the front let in the sun, catching all the dust floating in the air and making it sparkle.

He decides to give up, mission be damned. Turns out his mama actually did raise a quitter.

Alex picks through whatever’s in the bin in front of him with detached disinterest. He doesn’t read most of it, hasn’t heard of some of it, and his spirits have fallen completely down the drain.

There’s a Blue Beetle reprint on the display shelf above the bins, issue number one of Ted’s first appearance, and even though Alex already has a copy of it, he’s bummed out over the issue he can’t find.

So he reaches for it.

Another hand bumps into his and Alex blinks, startled.

He pulls away. “Oh, sorry, I-”

The other boy has also pulled away, biting his lip. “Sorry, man I just-”

Alex’s brain shuts off.

Because this guy is _gorgeous_ , all long brown hair and eyes like dark pools that he thinks he'd like to drown in.

He's got on a tie dyed tee shirt that looks like it's seen better days, but the holes in it somehow look more stylish than ragged. And the rips in his jeans don’t look like he bought them that way, like he fell and tore the denim and just decided he didn't care enough to throw them out.

He looks so _effortless_ in a way that Alex wishes he could be.

And he's smiling at him.

Oh god.

Alex swallows, his throat very dry. "Uh. You can have it, I've already got that issue," he says, hoping he sounds a lot smarter than he feels.

The guy is still looking at him, amused smile playing around his lips, and he’s got his eyebrows up like Alex is a puzzle he wants to solve. Alex feels like he’s under a microscope.

He gestures to the stack of issues still clutched in Alex’s other hand. “You sure, man? You’re pretty clearly on a collection mission.”

Alex shakes his head, gives him a tight smile. “It’s fine. Like I said, I already have that one. Just bummed out over the one I can’t find, spotted an old favorite instead, you know?”

The guy nods, tucking his hair behind his right ear with the hand he’s using to hold his prospective purchases. There’s a tiny gold hoop threaded through his earlobe, and Alex’s heart stutters.

He didn’t know anybody still signalled with earrings, and he wonders if he’s misinterpreting. 

That’d be his luck.

He doesn’t know how to respond, but he’s barely processed that before noting the cover of the issue this guy has held loosely in his grip.

It’s the one he’s been searching for for the past ten minutes.

~

Willie has had a rough day.

Late shift last night, didn’t get home ‘til nearly three in the freakin’ morning, thanks for absolutely nothing _Caleb_ , so much for his boss sticking around to help with the dinner rush.

He doesn’t know why he was surprised by that, honestly.

But he woke up with sore feet and aching shoulders and he decided while he was lying in bed that if he wanted to spend his entire day off doing nothing except visiting the comic store and cruising the pier on his skateboard, then he was gonna do it because he was old enough to make his own decisions.

Unfortunately that meant his laundry fell by the wayside again, and all he’d had left this morning was one of his least favorite tie dyes and his jeans with the hole under his butt.

Whatever.

He wishes in this second that he would have taken the time to try finding something a little bit neater, because there’s this blonde god in front of him and Willie wants to _die_ , because he knows he looks like he rolled out of bed and into the store.

Which, yeah, he kinda did.

But he doesn’t want this guy to _know that._

He hadn’t even brushed his hair before leaving the apartment, god help him.

And this guy looks like he stepped out of a painting or something, all jawline and wild eyebrows and he finally understands what The Princess Bride meant when they said _eyes like the sea after a storm_.

So he tucks his hair behind his ear and hopes that maybe he's right because the guy definitely spots his earring, but instead of giving him any sort of answer he blurts out, "Booster Gold number 20?"

Willie blinks, and looks at the comic in his hand. The cover is nearly black, only Booster Gold himself in his yellow and navy suit dead center, a look of despair on his face as his hands search helplessly in front of him.

The corner reads "Blinded By the Rainbow Raider!"

Willie already has this one, but this copy is in nicer condition. And he thinks the tagline is hilarious.

But this guy is looking at it with an odd expression on his face, and Willie realizes that he isn't collecting just any random Justice League Internationals. 

He's grabbing the ones that feature Booster Gold and Blue Beetle on the covers.

Something warm flickers in his chest.

He holds out the comic to him and the guy startles.

"You were looking for this one, weren't you?" the guy nods, biting his lip and still not taking it. "Tell you what. You can have this, and I'll buy that Blue Beetle and we'll call it square."

"But-"

Willie shakes his head and smiles. "Nah, listen. We can't leave one of them behind, they're best friends, man."

He nearly calls the two characters _boyfriends_ and stops himself at the last second, because no matter what he thinks, this guy still is a big ol’ question mark in the Likes Boys column, and Willie doesn’t want to paint a target on himself, just in case.

He takes the comic from Willie’s hand slowly, like he thinks that maybe Willie is gonna yank it back and yell “psych!” or something. A grin spreads across his face as he looks down at the cover, and Willie’s heart skips a beat.

Damn, but this guy is pretty.

“Thanks, dude.”

Willie shrugs like he’s not having a big gay panic over how much that smile is affecting him. His palms are sweating, and he hopes he didn’t leave a greasy handprint on the protective plastic cover before he handed it over.

That’d be his luck.

Try to be smooth in front of a cute boy, immediately gross him out.

Willie snags the issue of Blue Beetle off the display shelf, even though he’d really only wanted to look at it, not buy it, and adds it to his stack. He gives him a lazy salute and leaves him to head up to the counter to check out and retrieve his board, walking like he’s managed to keep his cool when he very much has _not_. He’s already going over the whole interaction in his head and berating himself for being such a dork in front of someone so gorgeous.

It’s not until he’s skating away with the plastic bag of comics swinging from his wrist does he realize he never got the guy’s name.

~

Julie waves her hand in front of Alex’s face.

He blinks in the mid-afternoon sun.

“Hello? This is ground control to Alex, would you like to join us on earth?” she says, looking amused. He bats her hand away and rolls his eyes.

She’s got a nearly-finished iced coffee in her other hand and her sunglasses perched atop her head, half buried in her curls. One of Reggie’s flannels is tied around her hips, and he’s pretty sure she’s wearing Luke’s missing Aerosmith shirt.

He won’t snitch on her though.

Julie drops down next to him on the bench and offers him the last few sips of her drink, stretching her legs out in front of her. “Where have you been all day?”

He shrugs, thinking about long hair and a charming smile. “Around, I guess.”

“Wanna get lunch?”

Alex watches a single car drive past them and onto the much busier road at the end of the street. "A real lunch or a Luke Lunch?"

Julie makes a face and smacks him in the arm. "A real lunch. No sketchy street vendors."

They end up at some little corner restaurant a few blocks down after Julie googles for Food Near Me. It'd only had one little dollar sign by the name, but when they get there, it looks a lot fancier than that.

The blocky art deco font on the door reads, _The HGC_.

Alex has no idea what that means.

It's mostly empty, the lunch rush crowd long gone by two thirty in the afternoon. A lone waitress greets them when they choose a table, her scarlet smile looking thin and strained as she hands them a pair of menus and takes their drink orders.

Julie’s eyebrows raise in disbelief at the prices, and Alex’s aren’t far behind. For as nice as the place is, the google listing didn’t lie; nothing is out of their price range, and most of it seems like classic American comfort food. In fact, everything seems more or less dirt cheap for what’s being offered, and Alex is a little bit freaked out to see a steakburger listed as being $2.99 for an entire meal.

What year was this restaurant from?

“Alex,” Julie whispers from behind her menu. “This place is weird, right?”

He nods, making eye contact with her over the entree listings. She stifles a giggle across the table and he tamps down on his own grin.

He loves hanging out with Julie, and even though they see each other at the studio constantly, it’s been a while since they’ve had any one on one time, between Julie’s summer college classes and Alex’s sporadic shifts at the grocery store.

He’s glad she’d texted this morning, asking him if he wanted to meet up.

And he’s really glad to know that nothing has changed between him and Julie since she started officially going out with Luke last month. He’d been worried that it would have been a little bit awkward, since he’s Luke’s “unofficial ex who wasn’t really an ex because they never actually dated,” as Reggie so eloquently put it. And Julie is his best friend, and he knows she’d been terrified of hurting his feelings, no matter how far in the past that particular dumbassery had been.

(Like, seriously, for two seconds, _four years ago_ , he thought he was into Luke. _Two seconds._ The guy puts guitar picks in his mouth, Julie, you can _keep him._ )

The waitress returns with their sodas, and takes their orders.

“So, who is he?” Julie asks as soon as the waitress is back behind the counter. Alex chokes on his Coke.

“What-” he splutters. Julie raises an eyebrow at him. She props her chin up with her palm, elbow on the table as she gives him a significant look.

“Alex, you were lost in space when I found you. And I know that look. Who’d you see?”

He huffs through his nose and stares down at the table, hating the way he can feel his cheeks heat up. But he’s still smiling. “Some guy at the comic store, I don’t know-”

Julie gives a thrilled little laugh. “Ooh, a nerd like you? What’d he look like?”

“Gorgeous.” he blurts out and Julie cackles again as he hides his face in his palms. “We reached for the same comic and I looked up and- _Jules_ he had this amazing hair and he kept _smiling_ at me and he was _so nice._ ”

He brings his hands up to card his fingers through his hair, just to have something to do with them, feeling pleased and shy and nervous with energy just thinking about the guy.

Julie smiles around her straw, taking a sip of her Sprite. “Did you get his name?”

His face falls. “No.”

Because of course he hadn’t. He’d been so distracted and his head so filled with _okay this is happening_ that he hadn’t even thought to ask, and now he’ll never see him again and he won’t be able to answer the guy’s question about if he also likes boys and he’ll never be able ask him out.

She winces in sympathy, and reaches out across the table to put her hand over his, curling her fingers around his palm. She rubs his wrist with her thumb soothingly. “Aw. Well, maybe he’s a regular. You might see him again.”

Alex gives her a wry little grin. “I’ve never seen him there before.”

“Ask the employees.”

“Oh yeah, that’ll go great,” Alex says sardonically, playing with his straw wrapper. “Walk in and be like, ‘Hey, have you seen that really pretty guy with the skateboard and the long brown hair and the gorgeous smile around lately? I’m his brand new stalker, I’d like to ask him out-’”

He’s interrupted by a startled little yelp from their waitress, who has fumbled a plate and barely managed to catch it while she was approaching their table. She has an odd look on her face as she sets down their meals, and gives a very quick, “Please enjoy-” before darting back behind the counter.

They watch her go, bemused, and see her strike up a frantic whisper conversation with the tall man who’s appeared from somewhere near the back of the building.

He’s dressed very formally for the afternoon, and as he listens to the woman talking to him, his eyes flick over to Alex.

Alex looks away immediately, feeling suddenly exposed. Julie notes his expression, and furrows her brows, dropping her fork before she’s even dug into her pasta. She reaches out for his hand again. “You good?”

Alex shakes his head to clear it, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. He still feels like he’s being watched, even though he heard the man’s footsteps trek back to the other side of the building.

“Yeah. I’m good.”

~

This can’t keep happening to him, because if it does, Willie is pretty sure he’s gonna keel over in the middle of the store.

Cause of death: Repeatedly reaching for the same comic as a beautiful blonde stranger.

Rest in freakin’ pieces, man.

“Come here often?” the guy asks, his eyes pinning Willie down, amusement glinting there as he raises his eyebrows. He’s wearing this ripped up denim jacket, and Willie is pretty sure that his shirt has that old band Loverboy on it. Talk about vintage, but it’s a good look.

And because he’s _definitely not_ staring at how broad those shoulders look in that jacket, his brain unplugs and he blurts out, “You again?”

Kill him.

Just kill him.

But the guy laughs. “Well, there’s new comics every week,” he pauses, his smile quirking wider. “Nice shirt.”

And Willie can feel his face catch fire, all the way up to his ears. He looks down and tugs on the hem of his pink crop top.

It says _Bad Dog Sit_ in jagged lettering down the front, and he had special ordered it online to look like one of his favorite shirts from Justice League International. He’d thought it was funny at the time, but now he just feels like a dork.

He chews on his lip and turns back to the rack of new comics. “So. Nightwing, huh?”

They both stare at the cover, perched so innocently on the wire rack.

It’s the only one left.

And look, Willie takes his Wednesday mornings off specifically for this, so he can amble down to the comic store to pick up his reads and head back home before he ducks into the HGC for the evening dinner rush around four.

And yes, he has a pull list and the guys at the counter are very good at getting him everything he knows he wants to read every week, but he’d forgotten to add Nightwing to his list last week and he didn’t think it would be a big deal to just pop over to the rack and grab it before checking out with the rest of his stuff they’d kept at the counter for him.

Sometimes he feels like life is laughing at him, because clearly someone out there wants him to fistfight this beautiful stranger for the last copy of Nightwing. It’s the only explanation.

The guy huffs through his nose, and looks at him with those eyes that Willie has been thinking about all week.

They’re so much prettier than he remembers, and he’s so busy trying to commit their color to memory Willie almost misses what he says.

“Wanna share it?”

And that’s how he ends up on the bench down the block, sitting hip to hip with a guy he’s met exactly twice, each of them holding one side of the comic.

And quite frankly he can’t focus on the words at all.

The sun is shining down and glinting off that spun gold hair, and Willie is starting to feel like he needs sunglasses just to look at him.

“I’m Alex, by the way.” he says, his eyes glued to the page like it’s the most interesting thing he’s seen in his life. Willie wishes he could relate, but he’s too startled by the fact that his beautiful stranger has a name now.

Who could care about Nightwing when _Alex_ was right here?

“Willie,” he says, a beat too late.

Alex smells like fresh shampoo and honeysuckle and Willie is very, _very_ distracted by his leg pressed against his and he really likes the name _Alex_ suddenly, it suits him, and Alex’s arm keeps brushing against his where he’s got his free hand in his jacket pocket and Willie is holding up the center of the comic and the light breeze keeps toying with Alex’s hair in just the most delightful way and _Alex Alex Alex Alex-_

He’d call it torture if he wasn’t enjoying it in the most anxiety inducing way possible.

So he tries to stare at the pictures at least, to enjoy the art, but his eyes keep straying back to Alex’s face in the sun, his profile and the slope of his nose and the cut of his jaw. Willie closes his eyes and listens to the sound of the traffic at the end of the block, where the busy intersection is, and tries to focus on that to ground himself.

It almost works.

They’re two pages from the end when Alex checks his phone. “Ah, crap,” he says, dropping the half he was holding as he moves to stand. “I have to go, I’m sorry.”

And Willie watches him leave, feeling suddenly unbalanced.

~

The sun is hot and he’s broken a sweat when he jogs up to her, leaning on the wall outside the restaurant. Julie looks over her sunglasses at him, her eyebrows raised.

“You didn’t have to run, you goof. It’s not like I’d ditch you for being late.”

She’s got his black ballcap on her head, backwards, and Alex gives her a Look. Julie ignores it.

He’s starting to realize where his pink hoodie might have disappeared to.

"This place again?" Alex asks, holding the door open for her. The air conditioning is blissfully cold on his overheated face, and he sighs.

Julie shrugs, leading him to a clean table. "They're cheap and the food is good."

Well she isn't _wrong_ , Alex admits to himself as they sit down. He still doesn't understand how a place so lavishly bedecked in purple and black and gold art deco can stay afloat with such low prices when both times they've been here it's been nearly empty.

It must be more of a dinner restaurant. That's the only explanation Alex can think of.

A menu slips in front of him. "Good afternoon."

Alex jumps in his seat.

"My name is Caleb, I'll be serving you today."

And he might be smiling, but he certainly doesn't look happy about it. It's the man from last week, with the prying eyes and the demeanor that reminds Alex of the story about the wolf wearing sheepskin.

His skin crawls.

Julie, bless her, already knows what she wants to order, and rattles it off like they're in a hurry. Alex repeats what he had ordered last time.

"I love people who know what they want," Caleb says, not bothering to write any of it down. He strides away like he knows they'll watch him do it and Julie sends Alex a look across the table, her eyebrows raised.

"That guy has serial killer vibes," she says, fiddling with her paper napkin. "So where were you?"

Alex clears his throat and ducks his head, unable to keep the shy smile from tugging at his lips. Julie reaches across the table to grab his hand excitedly.

“Did you meet up with the comic store guy again?” she asks, barely able to keep her voice down.

“His name is Willie,” he shrugs like finding out the name of the guy he’s been thinking about nonstop for the last week is no big deal. Julie can see right through him and he knows it.

She and Luke and Reggie have all been teasing him for _days_ about his “nerdy comic crush.” Luke says that Alex made him up, there’s no way someone that hot would be hanging around the comic store.

Julie had chimed in with a teasing little grin that _Luke_ regularly visits the comic store, so what’s that say about him?

His soda is placed in front of him with a little _clink_ as the glass hits the table and he jumps again, looking up to face Caleb.

He swears he’s never felt more like prey.

“Enjoy,” Caleb says, and Alex can’t shake the image of the wolf and his fangs and his glowing eyes from his mind.

~

“This is just getting ridiculous.”

Willie looks up over the bins to see Alex in the next aisle, and can’t help the smile on his face. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Alex says, grinning right back at him. He rests his forearms on the edge of the bins on his side, a single comic dangling from his fingertips. Willie tries and fails not to stare. “What are you looking for?”

“On that side? Wanna see if you can find me a Mister Miracle number 7?”

Alex pauses, his eyebrows climbing up to his hairline. He holds up the comic in its slick protective cover. “You mean this one?”

Willie stares. “This is getting spooky, man.”

Alex laughs and Willie’s heart th- _thuds_ , feeling like it’s leapt into his throat. His palms are starting to sweat and he’d really love it if his crush on this guy wasn’t so apparent, but it’s to the point that when he’d walked in the cashier at the counter had given him a look that he’s only just now realizing was supposed to tell him that Alex was already in the store.

He swallows, and tries to remember where he put all his courage this morning. “Trade you a smoothie for it?”

~

They end up on the same bench as before, Alex’s fingers growing numb from cold as he mostly ignores his smoothie in favor of telling Willie about the band.

“Yeah, we really thought we were gonna get our big break this last time, but we...uh.” he finally takes a sip, orange flooding his mouth as he wishes he hadn’t brought up this part.

Willie is listening intently, his feet up on the bench as he sits facing him, criss-cross style, his skateboard propped up next to his hip. He’s been drinking his own wildberry blitz, letting Alex babble as much as he wants because he’d spotted the drumsticks in Alex’s back pocket and then asked about them.

Normally he wouldn’t walk around with them in his pocket, but the zipper on his fanny pack had broken this morning, and he needs to keep them on him for when he goes to the studio later.

“You, _uh_ , what?” Willie asks, his voice teasing. Alex ducks his head.

“We got food poisoning before the show,” he grumbles. Willie chokes on his smoothie, nearly snorting it out his nose.

“I’m sorry,” he splutters, wiping his mouth. “That’s not funny-”

Alex gives him a rueful smile, fiddling with the straw. “It’s a little funny.”

It’s quiet between them, the sounds of traffic the only thing breaking the silence.

“What about you?” Alex asks.

Willie sighs. “I skate, I read comics, and I spend my nights busting my ass doing this over-the-top dinner theater performance number my boss came up with.”

“You’re a dancer?”

“I’m a waiter who dances.”

Alex laughs, because he doesn’t quite know what to say to that. He still can’t believe that he’s sitting here drinking a smoothie with this gorgeous guy, a smoothie this guy _bought for him,_ and that he’s listened to Alex talk about himself like he really cares what he has to say.

“Where did you get Blue and Gold socks?” Alex asks, his attention drawn to Willie’s ankles as he shifts the way he’s sitting. His mismatched calf socks have the Blue Beetle symbol on one, and Booster Gold’s star logo on the other, and Alex is kind of insanely jealous.

Willie grins, chewing on his straw. “I didn’t. I had to buy a pair of each, so now I’ve got this extra pair of socks lying around I’m never gonna wear.”

“Why not just wear them? Nobody would know the difference.”

Willie cards his fingers through his hair, shaking it back over his shoulders, and Alex’s brain short circuits. “Dunno. Don’t see the point in one person having two pairs of the same socks,” he crosses his hand over his chest to hold his bicep, the one he’s still clutching his drink with. “Guess I’ll give them to the right person someday. Someone who’ll appreciate ‘em,” he murmurs, his eyes flicking to Alex’s and away.

Alex’s heart stumblesteps in his chest.

He takes a long sip of his drink, feeling his cheeks burn. He knows that Willie probably didn’t mean to imply that he could be the _right person_ for him, but he can’t shake the thought from his brain.

Alex wants to be the right person. He wants to be the right person _so badly_ his chest aches with it. He barely knows Willie, but he already feels like he’s found someone he was always meant to meet.

“You should come to our gig on Friday,” he blurts out.

Willie’s gaze searches his face, and Alex swallows under his scrutiny. His mouth suddenly feels unbearably dry.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’ll get you a ticket,” he promises. “I can drop it off at your work?”

“Sounds great, man,” Willie’s smile is so bright, Alex wonders if the sun gets jealous.

Later, when he punches _The Hollywood Ghost Club_ into his phone, he blinks.

“Huh.”

~

Willie goes in early on Thursday afternoon, feeling like he’s on Cloud Nine. He’s pretty sure that him hanging out with Alex for most of the afternoon yesterday definitely counts as a date, especially since Alex asked him to come see the band play tomorrow night.

He’d texted Dante last night to ask him to trade shifts with him, freeing up his Friday and occupying his Thursday night instead, but he doesn’t mind. Not when he gets to see Alex play tomorrow.

And yeah, he might have already searched _Julie and the Phantoms_ on youtube. They’re great, and he knows he should pay attention to the words but every grainy video he sees, shot from the crowd at their gigs, he can’t help focusing on the platform behind their lead singers, Alex looking freer than he’s ever looked in person with his sticks flying over the drums.

God, he’s so gone for this guy.

Myrna is out sick, so they’re a little short staffed for the night, and he knows that Caleb is going to duck into the back after the seven pm number to avoid helping out on the floor, and he’s in for a rough shift. But as he ties up his hair, he can’t bring himself to care.

This shift is just something between him and getting to see Alex tomorrow, that’s all.

“Why’re you in such a good mood, kid?” Fuego asks him, retying his shoes so he doesn’t trip in the middle of a jazz square. Willie shrugs, the smile on his face never shifting.

“Ooh, I know that look,” says Eloise, her hands fluttering towards him to rest on his shoulders. Her red lipstick is impeccable. “ _Someone’s_ got a boyfriend.”

Willie shakes her off, rolling his eyes. “Not a boyfriend, El.”

She pouts at him, and reaches out to pinch his cheek teasingly. “Then who is it that’s got my precious William all heart-eyed?”

“Just a guy,” he says coyly, cuffing his jacket. “A guy I met at the comic store.”

He’s given her just enough information to keep her pestering him fondly, and by the time they’ve started taking the early arrival orders on the floor, Eloise knows everything Willie knows about Alex, the beautiful guy from the comic store who drums in an upcoming band with his best friends and whose show Willie is supposed to get tickets for.

And she’s apparently told Caleb, Willie learns when his hand falls heavily on his shoulder, startling him into nearly dropping a full tray of drinks.

“William,” he says. “I hear your eye has been caught by a handsome stranger,”

And Willie doesn’t really have a _reason_ for why he doesn’t like the way Caleb says that, but something makes him cautious. “Yeah, I guess.” he hedges.

Caleb gives him a smile, but there’s nothing behind it. Willie _hates_ when he does that.

“You see, Eloise was telling me all about your pretty new beau, and I thought he sounded rather familiar. Handsome blonde with the curtain hair, always has a bag of comics with him?”

Willie’s stomach twists. “Probably.”

“Then I feel the need to tell you that he’s been in here once or twice, with a very pretty girl. They seemed rather _close_.”

The world shrinks around him. Caleb couldn’t possibly mean what he thinks he means, because Alex was just out on a date with _him_ yesterday, right?

Right.

“I’d just hate to see you get hurt,” Caleb says, and half the time Willie can't tell if he's being insincere or if his face just genuinely looks like that after years of grandiose showmanship being the forefront of his personality.

Willie ignores the tight feeling in his chest. “Ah. I gotta get these to table three,” he says, ducking away.

The thing is, as much as Caleb is a flake as a boss, he’s never lied to him. His demeanor has always been off-putting, but Willie has to believe that he truly does have his employees’ best interests at heart, and he doesn’t think Caleb would tell him anything that was untrue.

So maybe Alex had been in the restaurant, so what?

He didn’t know Willie worked here until yesterday. It’s just coincidence. 

And eating lunch with a girl wasn’t a crime.

Willie sorts out the drinks at the table, his customer service smile firmly in place even as his thoughts plummet.

Or had he been projecting the whole time? Hitting on a straight guy who was too polite to tell him so? A guy with a girlfriend, at the very least.

But then why would Alex invite him to their show? Just to be nice?

The clock strikes seven and robotically, he takes his place on the performance floor, specifically cleared of tables in the last twenty minutes. He knows this routine by heart; he could probably do it in his sleep.

In fact, he’s pretty sure he has done it in his sleep; he’s woken up with their song stuck in his head on more than one occasion.

The dinner crowd loves this sort of over the top thing, and he’s pretty sure that this is how they stay in business; Caleb hiring the prettiest people he can find who can carry a tune and do a little fancy footwork for his precious customers to ogle over while he belts out the same song night after night.

It’s a little bit like working in a hellish Disney World parade.

And honestly, most of the time he enjoys it. He gets to show off a little bit of skill and pocket some good cash because an entertained crowd is a generous crowd.

But tonight just isn’t his night, and as he completes one of his spins, the chime of the door gets his attention. He doesn’t even know how he hears it over the music, but he does.

And there’s Alex.

Arm in arm with the lead singer of their band. The pretty girl that Caleb had seen him with.

Julie.

Willie misses a step.

Alex searches him out and waves, whispering something into Julie’s ear to be heard over the music. She laughs, and waves at him as well.

They’re laughing at him, he knows it.

He does his best to hit the steps correctly, and thank god for his muscle memory because it’s taking everything in him not to drop to the floor right then and there.

Caleb had been right, and Willie has spent all his interactions with Alex making a complete and utter fool of himself in front of a guy who was too nice to tell him he wasn’t interested.

The second the song ends, he decides he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about the dinner rush or the fact that Caleb is gonna give him a write up or that Alex is here with his girlfriend, _he just wants out_ he needs to leave _right now right now right now_ -

He can see Alex trying to make his way through the crowd towards him, but he’s worked here a long time, he knows this place like the back of his hand, and he swerves through the throng of people and tables and employees much faster than Alex could ever attempt. He ducks into the back, to the employees only area where they keep their things, and grabs his board.

As much as he wants to leave through the back exit, it’s an alarmed door in case of fire, and only Caleb has the code to disarm it, so he weaves his way back out the front, and ignores Eloise’s concerned voice calling out to him.

He doesn’t care.

He _doesn’t._

Tears sting at his eyes as he steps outside, the night air just barely starting to develop a bit of a chilly bite to it, and he shivers despite his uniform jacket. Willie starts walking, not even caring which way he’s going so long as it’s _away._

He feels used.

And his heart aches like it’s been tossed to the ground, his brittle brittle feelings shattered all over the boulevard, a thousand little shards he’s not going to be able to piece back together.

And yeah, maybe he’s being a little bit dramatic, but he’d really, _really_ liked Alex. He doesn’t believe in other people being missing pieces, because everyone is a complete person by themselves. But finding Alex had been like...like coming home. A feeling of _oh there you are._

And that feeling has been taken away, leaving him hollow and aching for the comfort he’s been denied.

Even his teeth hurt, and Willie realizes that he’s clenching his jaw against the onslaught of tears. He knows he shouldn’t, but he drops his board to the ground and hops on, pushing off with one unsteady foot and immediately almost unbalancing himself.

Whatever.

He’s been humiliated in front of his entire workplace, where they’re surely talking about how stupid he is to have been so gone over a guy who he barely knows, never mind their weird mind-meld-y comic connection or the fact that he’s never had time pass as deliciously languidly as it had sitting next to Alex on that bench, his smoothie dripping cold condensation over his hand as he listened to Alex tell him about his friend Reggie fixing his amp in the rain.

Whatever, just whatev-

He’s rocked off his feet, a firm force around his middle dragging him heavily backwards. His board goes out from under him as they tumble sideways to the ground, and Willie barely manages to avoid cracking his head against the concrete. It occurs to him then that he left his helmet back at the HGC.

The sounds of angry traffic filter into his ringing ears.

“Holy shit, Willie, are you crazy?”

Alex is yelling at him.

Alex is on top of him, yelling at him, his hands on Willie’s jaw, his knees on either side of Willie’s hips.

There’s a disconnect in his brain as to how this happened.

He thinks he might have just almost skated into traffic.

And Alex saved his dumb ass.

God help him, this was not the way to get over the guy.

Alex looks so freaked out, his hands roaming Willie’s face like he can find the problem in Willie’s brain that way, like he can fix whatever it was that made him nearly become street pizza right in front of him.

_he followed me_

His chest is heaving and Alex’s eyes are boring down into his and maybe he’s still a little bit stunned and maybe he hit his head after all because he can’t stop staring at Alex’s mouth and he doesn’t know who moves first because Alex’s lips are on his and he’s got his fist tangled up in Alex’s hoodie while Alex’s fingers press into the back of his neck.

They break apart, Willie’s breath coming in heavy pants. “Alright then,” he says. Alex seems to realize how suggestive their position is, out here in the middle of the sidewalk at seven thirty on a Thursday night, where every car driving by can see them, and he pulls away so that Willie can sit up.

His board didn’t quite make it into the street, thank god, the front wheels tipped over the curb and threatening to drop into the road at any second. Alex reaches over and pulls it back.

“What was that about, Willie?” he asks softly. Willie shrinks into himself.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again, Alex, I-”

“What?” he looks at Willie with baffled eyes. “I meant the whole, ‘running away from me’ thing. Not the...not the kiss,” he trails off, and in the purple light of dusk, Willie can see him blushing.

And this boy makes his brain shut down so fast, he can't help it. Willie pulls his knees up to his chest, wraps his arms around his shins, and tells him, sitting there in the middle of the sidewalk.

He tells him how he swears he felt a spark the first time their hands bumped, how he couldn't focus on the comic while they sat on that bench, the heat of Alex’s leg pressed against his just _too much too much_ for him and it's a good thing Alex left Nightwing with him because he hadn't absorbed a word of it.

Tells him how much he liked listening to him talk yesterday, even the complaints about his hours at the grocery store being cut lately, how Alex’s face lit up like Christmas when he talked about the band and how Willie wishes he had that kind of passion.

He tells him that Caleb had seen them at the HGC, had implied that Alex’s interest in him was purely platonic as he seemed to have been with Julie both times he came into the restaurant.

The streetlights are reflecting off the sidewalk, catching the imperfections in the concrete and making them sparkle. Traffic has slowed way down, this particular road not in heavy use for as far out of the way as it is, but still, headlights occasionally beam across them, making Alex’s expressions hard to catch as Willie talks.

When he's done rambling, he feels deflated and humiliated all over again, and he ducks his head to his chest so he doesn't have to look Alex in the eye while Alex rejects him.

But Alex reaches out and pries one of Willie’s hands free. He kneels in front of him, both his hands holding on to Willie’s fingers like they're something delicate, something breakable.

Willie certainly feels like one word from Alex could fracture him to pieces.

Alex gives a tiny, desperate laugh under his breath, absolutely no humor in it at all.

"Even if I wasn't, like, one hundred percent gay," he says quietly. "Julie has a boyfriend, and it's definitely not me. She's my _best friend_. I guess if you don't get mistaken for dating with your best friends, are they really your best friends?" 

He runs his thumbs over Willie’s knuckles. "Your boss is a dick, dude. I know for a fact he heard me talking about you last week."

~

He can't believe he's sitting out here on a public sidewalk while this beautiful boy with the sad sad eyes spills his guts in front of him, but hey, life is like that.

And he would give anything for Willie’s eyes to light up again the way they had been when they'd pulled away from that kiss.

Alex still feels like his entire being is buzzing with the energy that sparked all the way down to his toes when he'd lost all his senses just a few minutes ago and pressed his mouth over Willie’s trembling lips, like some sort of romance novel.

And if that’s not a great comparison for the last several minutes of his life, he doesn’t know what is. Between seeing Willie run out of the HGC with his skateboard in hand and Alex chasing him down just in time to see him nearly swerve right into oncoming traffic, he feels like he’s living in a cheesy 90s rom-com.

And he had been so so scared when he'd realized what was about to happen. He's pretty sure he's never moved as fast in his life as he did when he yanked Willie away from the road.

And he's so glad that his unthinking reaction to the relief that Willie was okay, was alive, wasn't currently serving as a speedbump for someone's souped up Dodge Charger, that his brain shutting down and kissing this amazing guy, that all of that doesn't seem to be the part Willie is upset about.

He keeps running his thumbs over Willie’s knuckles, _back and forth, back and forth,_ and he hopes that it's helping, because Willie had looked like a skittish, scared, _trapped_ animal when he'd walked into the HGC with Julie, like he would have chewed off his own arm to escape, and Alex never wants to see that look on his face again.

Julie had given him a shove out the door and yelled that she would meet him later. He hopes to god that she's okay alone. 

He really can’t handle so much happening all at once.

And on some level, he’s completely thrilled that this amazing guy feels the same way he does, but _god_ , he wishes it hadn’t come to light this way. He misses yesterday, when life consisted of sunshine and oranges and Willie’s contented gaze on him.

But that was yesterday, and right now, he thinks he knows what Willie needs to hear. So he shoves all of his anxieties down as far as he can, because despite the fact that he _knows_ that Willie likes him too, that Willie literally _just told him so_ , there’s this part of him that’s still waiting for the other shoe to drop, for someone to pull back the curtain and tell him it was all a big joke at his expense.

And Alex, with his hands still clutching Willie’s fingers, says, “I really, _really_ like you. And if you ever try to nosedive into traffic again, I’ll kill you myself.”

That.

Was not what he wanted to say.

But Willie laughs, a broken, cracked sound, like his chest isn’t sure exactly how to make the motion anymore. Alex calls it a win.

“And,” he says, reaching for his back pocket. “I have a question for you-”

“Vic or Renee?” Willie asks immediately, like he can’t help himself, a grin starting to creep across his face. Alex blinks.

“Wha-No! Not _The Question_ ,” he rolls his eyes and frees one hand to smack Willie’s shin. “Don’t make comic jokes at me right now, I’m being serious.”

He pulls out the laminated paper that he’d begged off of Flynn. The cheap black lanyard dangles between them like a pendulum. “Did you still want to go to our show? Because you don’t know what I had to do to get you this pass. I think our manager technically owns my soul now.”

Willie takes the backstage pass from him like he’s being handed the golden ticket, and the fluttering in Alex’s chest increases like ten thousand hummingbird wings all took off at once.

Some of the spark has returned to Willie’s eyes as he looks at him.

“I’ll be there,” he promises.

~

He’s lost the pass.

Willie is about ten seconds from a full on breakdown.

Here he is, outside the venue, he can hear soundcheck going on, he _knows_ Alex is waiting for him, he’s got this stupid gift in his hand, and _he can’t find his pass._

Things had been going so well, too.

Last night had been the wildest emotional rollercoaster he’d ever been forced to endure, and he’s pretty sure that between the confessions and the nearly dying, Alex had kissed him at some point, but Alex hadn’t brought it up again, even as he’d walked him back to the HGC hand in hand. Even after Willie insisted that he didn’t need to go in with him, that he really needed to go make sure that Julie got home safely, and Alex had looked like he wanted… _something,_ he didn’t voice it.

Willie had walked in to face the gallows alone.

And hadn’t that been a fun little chat with Caleb, who looked like he’d swallowed a lemon when Willie had reentered the restaurant. A long winded spiel about responsibilities and how disappointed he was in Willie’s behavior that culminated in Willie walking away midsentence to grab his helmet and flip Caleb the bird on his way out the door.

He isn’t sure if that constitutes quitting, but like hell is he going back there now.

Willie sighs, and leans up against the side of the building. There’s a line around the block already, and he’s really proud to see that the band’s hard work has paid off. It’s just too bad he won’t get to see it for himself.

He texts Alex, but he knows that he won’t see it in time.

This was just his luck.

He fiddles with the hastily wrapped present, picking at his sloppy tape job. This was a dumb idea, and he can’t even show Alex just how dumb it is because _he’s stuck outside the building with no ticket._

Willie considers the pros and cons of trying to sneak in. But there’s nearly a one hundred percent guarantee that he’ll get caught, and wouldn’t that be embarrassing? To get kicked out of the venue in front of the guy he likes so much it makes his chest ache with it? He thinks he’s had enough of humiliating himself in front of Alex for one week, thank you very much.

Screw it. He’ll just sit out here for the whole show and pretend that he can feel the drumbeat in his ribs the way he would if he were pressed up against the stage, imagining the way Alex’s music would reverberate through his bones and shake his skull around. 

Just like Alex himself.

He’s pouting and he knows he’s pouting and he doesn’t care, this is the biggest disappointment of the week and-

“Hey, pretty boy! Are you Willie?”

~

“Dude, if you don’t stop pacing, I’m gonna throw you down and make Reggie sit on you.”

Alex makes a face at Luke, and continues his circles. He’d read Willie’s text just as they were leaving the stage from soundcheck, and his heart had plummeted. He just hopes that Flynn finds him before Willie decides to leave.

“Why would I have to hold him down, you’re heavier than me-”

“I am _not_ -”

“This is not a productive use of pre-show time,” Julie mutters, sipping at her water, one hand pressed to her temple as Reggie and Luke continue to bicker.

She’s right, because they’re supposed to be onstage in like, ten minutes, and Alex has his usual nerves that happen before their gigs, _plus_ the extra nerves from inviting Willie, on top of the fact that Willie can’t get in the venue, _and_ even if Flynn does find him, that means that Willie is gonna meet his friends, and the idea that his friends won’t like Willie makes Alex’s heart twist in his chest, and he’s just a little anxious, okay?

He doesn’t know why Willie meeting the band is stressing him out so much; Reggie and Luke had practically given him their stamp of approval the second Alex had said _so there’s this guy_ , and Julie has been onboard since day one.

And it’s hard to imagine anyone _not_ liking Willie immediately.

Couldn’t be him, that’s for sure.

Alex remembers reading somewhere that green rooms in theaters are painted green because it’s supposed to be a calm color.

Sounds like crap to him.

He starts chewing on his thumbnail, a habit he thought he kicked when he was twelve.

Seven minutes to showtime.

Luke notices, and gets off the sofa where he and Reggie have been camped out, Reggie following suit. Luke reaches out and grabs him by the shoulders while Reggie goes to pull Alex’s arm down by latching onto his elbow.

“Quit it, okay?” Luke says, doing that thing where he looks up at Alex from under his eyebrows. Reggie shifts and wraps his arms around Alex’s waist, pinning down the hand he’d been trying to chew the nails off of.

“Flynn will find him, don’t worry,” Reggie says, his chin digging into Alex’s shoulder.

Their little group hug rocks as Jule slams into it. “I just want to be part of things,” she grumbles from somewhere between Alex and Luke. Alex laughs.

They’re ridiculous and he loves them. His talented little family, formed out of broken hearts and the kind of resilience that only happens when life makes you claw your way to success together. Nobody on the planet _gets him_ quite as well as Julie and Luke and Reggie do.

Well.

Maybe _one_ other person, now.

There’s a knock on the door just as they break apart, and Alex’s stomach drops again. He wants to pull them all back into the hug and hide in the safety of it forever, because it’s time, it’s time to go play their sold-out show and he _doesn’t want to_ because Willie isn’t here, and he knows that’s a silly thought but he can’t freaking help it-

“Hey, I found this lost puppy outside, you guys wanna see?”

Without waiting to even let them process that, Flynn throws open the green room door, a wide smile plastered to her face, her braids swinging as she tugs her quarry behind her.

And there’s Willie, looking flustered and amused.

Flynn has that effect on people.

And Alex thinks Willie has never looked so good, with his tangled hair and baffled expression and his blue crop top that says _Kill Claudio_ across his chest in big black letters and he really, really wants to ask where Willie keeps getting these shirts, but now is not the time because Willie is looking at him with a thousand watt smile and _he’s here he’s here he’s here-_

“Hey, hot dog,” he says.

And Reggie and Luke both start talking at once because, “Dude, you _told him_ about the food poisoning-” and “Alex, you _promised_ you’d never bring that up again, I said I was sorry-”

But Alex tunes them out.

Willie’s smile turns shy, his eyes focused on Alex even as Julie makes introductions, and by the knowing grin on her face, she knows that neither of them is really listening.

“-and believe me, I really hate to put a rush on this, because we’ve been wanting to meet you for _forever,_ ” Julie says, tucking her hair behind her ear. “But we’ve gotta go do the whole _band thing_ out there,” she gestures to the door. “So-” she grabs Reggie by his jacket and Luke by his arm, and yanks them both out of the green room, throwing a wink to Alex as she shoves them towards the stage, Flynn hot on her heels.

Willie huffs a laugh. “They’re fun,” he says, looking fond, and Alex’s heart gives a stuttering _thud_ , he can’t help it when Willie is looking at him like that and he’s holding something in his fidgeting hands and holding it out to Alex, biting his lip ever so timidly.

He takes the present, because that’s pretty clearly what it is, and Willie ducks his head, tugging on a strand of his hair.

“I, uh...I’m gonna, go...watch the show,” he says, gesturing with his thumb over his shoulder. “Break a leg, okay? And,” he licks his lip and Alex tries so hard not to stare. “You don’t have to keep that, it’s...it’s stupid.”

He turns tail and practically runs from the green room and Alex is hit with a sense of deja vu; that’s the second time Willie has run away from him in twenty four hours.

He really hopes it doesn’t become a habit.

Alex looks down at the thing that Willie has handed him. It’s wrapped in newspaper, and very badly at that; his mother would turn her nose up at it, and that thought more than anything amuses him. So he tears the paper off.

And freezes.

Oddly familiar blue and gold fabric unfolds from the paper, tumbling over his fingers and nearly to the floor as he fumbles to catch them.

It’s the other pair of Willie’s Booster Gold and Blue Beetle socks.

~

Willie had known they were good, but nothing compares to being in the crowd as Julie and the Phantoms completely bring down the house. There’s a palpable energy while they play, and Willie is surprised to find that he does know most of the words just from his youtube deep dive.

Something about yelling _and you’re a part of me, now ‘til eternity_ while looking directly at Alex makes his head spin, and he’s glad that Alex probably can’t see him from the stage.

And he feels a little bit silly for thinking that Julie would have been involved with Alex when he sees the way that Luke looks at her, even in front of this crowd, and growls his lyrics like they’re the only two people left in the whole world.

He can’t see Alex’s feet behind the bass drum, and he kind of hates that he wishes that he could, if only to see if Alex accepted his gift, which he knows is ridiculous because even if he had, why on earth would he put the socks on when he’d already been wearing socks, that’d be really strange to take the time to change them when he had more important things to worry about than Willie and his weird, nerdy presents.

But still.

It’s a fantastic show, and Willie manages to actually watch parts of it that aren’t just Alex and how at home he looks with the cymbals and the snare, the microphone in front of him while his hair is flying with how into the music he is.

And if Willie has to take a deep breath when Alex unexpectedly has a solo chorus in the middle of a new song, then that is Willie’s business, okay?

Julie gives the audience a fond farewell, thanks them for their time, and leads her band offstage like a queen leading her court.

Flynn had given him a new pass when she’d hunted him down outside, and told him very sternly that if he lost this one, she would have his head on a pike. Willie believes her. It’s tangled up with the chain he keeps his apartment key on for safekeeping, and he doesn’t bother to sort them out when he flashes the badge to the guy guarding the door to the stage.

The crowd is chanting for an encore, but he doesn’t care, because he wants to see Alex _right now right now_ and tell him how amazing he is and how good the band is and if they don’t get their big break after tonight then something is wrong with the world because the air practically feels _electric_ with the energy they’ve given the venue.

He’s half jogging when he finds them, hanging out in the wings of the stage because they’re probably planning to go do the demanded encore, and there he is.

Alex has a water bottle in his hand and his hair stuck to his forehead, looking exhausted but pleased as he tells Reggie something. Reggie laughs and Alex grins at him and Willie is so so over the moon for this guy, that smile isn’t even directed at him and he’s got butterflies.

He doesn’t think about it, just launches himself at Alex like he knows he’ll catch him.

And Alex does.

The cold water bottle ends up pressed against the small of his back, seeping icy condensation onto his bare skin and making him shiver. Alex is sweaty and smells like _boy_ and that should be so gross but it’s not, it’s not, he’s never been so content.

Alex rocks with the force of the hug, laughing into Willie’s hair. “Good show, then?”

“Great show,” Willie confirms into his shoulder.

They pull apart, just enough to look at each other. “Thanks for the socks,” Alex says, looking down.

Willie does too, and is delighted that Alex did actually put them on. “We can match,” he says without thinking, and immediately wants to crawl into a deep dark hole and hide forever.

Could he sound any more like an eager dork?

But Alex is blushing, and he’s looking past Willie with this indecipherable expression in those eyes of his. Willie glances back, and realizes that the rest of the band has once again left them to their lonesome.

Alex’s hand is on his jaw, his fingers pressing ever so gently to turn his face back towards him, and Willie feels his cheeks burn as he registers exactly how close they are.

“Can I-?” Alex asks, his eyes flicking down to Willie’s mouth. Willie swallows.

“Hell yes,” he breathes, his eyes already half closed. His arms are still resting on Alex’s shoulders, Alex’s other hand at his waist with that _freakin’ cold_ water bottle pressing into his skin.

And finally, _finally_ , Alex tilts Willie’s jaw to the side and meets him in the middle.

It’s not like last night, that kiss that Willie is half-convinced he made up in his head, all frantic worry and fear poured from an overflowing well and into him. This is gentle, and tentative, and new, and he’s thinking they might be doing this backwards but he doesn’t care because Alex is kissing him, _Alex_ is kissing _him_ and god he wishes he could go back in time and tell the version of himself from a few weeks ago that soon he’d be wrapped up in those arms he’d been dreaming about since smacking hands by accident at the stupid back issue comic bins, because Past Willie would never have believed his luck could be that good.

He sighs through his nose, and can’t help smiling against Alex’s mouth.

The roar of the crowd breaks into their little bubble, the demands for an encore becoming more insistent, and Willie knows he’s more or less holding their drummer hostage. He breaks away and rests his forehead against Alex’s, just for a moment.

Willie steps back, trailing his hands down Alex’s arms as he does, and delights in how the move makes Alex blush harder than the kiss had.

“Hey, I think they’re waiting on you, hot dog,” he teases. “They’re gonna think you’re back here doing something you aren’t supposed to be doing.”

Alex makes a face at him, but Willie can tell he’s a little bit amused.

“Will you stay?”

And the sudden vulnerability in Alex’s voice catches him off guard.

He can’t help the way his mouth quirks as he reaches out to grab Alex’s hand, the way Alex had held his last night while he convinced himself he’d ruined _them_ forever.

“Yeah,” he says, squeezing his fingers. “I’ll stay.”

For as long as Alex wants him, he’ll stay.

**Author's Note:**

> this is for everyone who has listened to me whine about writing this for the last week and a half; yall are champs, ilu, MWAH.
> 
> the boostle socks were ryn's idea she did this
> 
> this is the longest one shot ive ever posted, im nervous, im ridiculously proud of it, and i really really hope you guys like it.
> 
> leave me a comment if you enjoyed, and pls go check out my other jatp works!


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